


Of Summer & Blanket Forts

by MadBiscuitLady



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of Anxiety, Reibert - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-10 20:43:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2039445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadBiscuitLady/pseuds/MadBiscuitLady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reiner reflects on his relationship with Bertholdt one unbearably hot summer day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Summer & Blanket Forts

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my tumblr. Lots of fluff. I’m no writer and this is the first attempt at a fanfic I've made in 10 years. Go easy on me.

Current Temp: 91°F  
Feels Like: 98°F

Reiner cursed as he scowled down at the weather app on his phone before pocketing it. July was brutal. He was pretty glad he decided to hit up the park district gym with its blessed air conditioning rather than giving himself heatstroke out in the elements.

He braced himself as the automatic doors opened, allowing the heat and humidity to hit him full-force in the face. Ah. No breeze either. Gross, just gross. Luckily, the building was just a fifteen minute walk from the apartment, but it was still fifteen minutes of searing sun and stifling air with few trees tall enough for some small measure of relief. Oh well, at least he had made sure to stay properly hydrated beforehand.

By the time he reached the familiar facade of the apartment, Reiner felt as though he had jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed. He gazed longingly at the open fire hydrant the neighborhood kids were playing in. The urge to shove his head into the geyser of water was extremely tempting. No. Focus. He was almost there, he just had to make it up the 2 flights of stairs to get to his unit.

The building was really a 90-year old 3-story townhouse, a common sight in this part of town. Each floor had been converted into a separate apartment over the years, complete with giant furnace in the kitchen, radiators in every room, and bathtubs with clawed feet. Hell, every door in the house still had skeleton keyholes! Air conditioning units decorated the windows on every level, dripping their condensation into the gangway below.

Reiner lived on the second floor. It wasn't nearly as awful as the attic apartment above him probably was, but it still got fairly hot in the summer. The only air conditioning unit he had was in the kitchen, which was joined to the living room. Fans and heavy blackout curtains took care of the rest.

He decided to go through the back porch entrance. The stairs to his unit's front door were narrow, steep and curved left awkwardly at the top. It was super easy to lose your footing especially if you were juggling a few bags of groceries. He hated those damn stairs, what kind of crazed masochist designed those things?

He dug his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the back door. An even hotter wall of air rife with the smell of mothballs greeted him within. That was to be expected, seeing as the sun had been beating through the windows on this side of the building. He made his way up the stairs to Unit #2 and started unlocking the doors. The storm door was most likely a relic from a time when the whole back porch area was open air rather than part of the house. Why else would there be two doors like this inside?

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Reiner closed and locked the doors behind him. “Honey I’m home.” He sang, tossing the towel that had been hanging over his shoulder into the bathroom hamper along with his sweaty shirt as he headed down the short hallway towards the kitchen. Ah. Much better.

No response. Did Bertholdt go out or something? He peered into the bedroom they shared. Nope, not there, but his shoes were so he had to be home.

He found Bertholdt in the kitchen at the small dining table seated directly in front of the air conditioner. The fan that normally circulated the cooler air into the living room had been turned to face him. He must have been reading, or attempting to read because he was fanning himself with the paperback, tan skin shiny with perspiration.

Bertholdt really didn't do heat.

“Reinerrr…it’s hot.” He whined. He looked so damn miserable, the poor guy.

“You think its bad in here, it’s like Satan’s asshole out there,” he motioned at the door.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to cool off…” He slouched in the chair, stretching his long legs out in front of him, hands dangling at his sides.

Reiner Braun had known Bertholdt Hoover since they were kids. Kindergarten if his memory served. That was a long time to know anyone, and they had been thick as thieves ever since, so it didn’t come as a complete surprise when Reiner came to learn that his feelings for his best friend were a little more than friendly. He made that realization back in high school.

Back then, Bertholdt had been on the archery team, but he also wrote movie reviews for the school paper, so he was always getting free tickets. Reiner was the first person he would invite to the movies with him. Every week they would hop on the bus and go straight to the theater after Reiner got out of soccer practice. They were typically intellectual or artsy fartsy films or documentaries, though there were a few decent mainstream ones from time to time. Return of the King on opening night? Hell yeah he and Bertholdt were there! Though Bertholdt felt Reiner could have left the big fake Dwarven beard at home, but whatever. Reiner was more often than not, disinterested in whatever was on the screen, but he got to spend time with Bertholdt and the price was right, so he never complained.

It was a Friday night in April when Reiner finally decided to tell Bertholdt how he felt about him, only things didn't go quite as planned. Bertholdt was finding himself under a lot of stress, from his studies to figuring out what to do about college in a little over a year, to his family. He had just lost his cousin Marcel to leukemia a mere few weeks prior. They had been very close and Bertholdt often thought of him as a brother.

All these things had weighed him down, but Marcel’s passing was the breaking point. Reiner found Bertholdt curled up and shaking in his room in the midst of what was clearly some form of an anxiety attack. In the end, Reiner ended up wrapping Bertholdt in a blanket with a bunch of pillows, making sure he regulated his breathing and stayed hydrated. The whole episode probably didn't last longer than a half hour, but it was nerve wracking for them both. Despite all that Reiner was patient with him. He listened as Bertholdt vented, offering his reassurances where they were needed. Bertholdt meant a lot to him, and maybe, just maybe Reiner meant a lot to Bertholdt as well.

Eventually Bertholdt felt more or less himself, albeit shaky. Reiner had smiled and then told him to sit with him and watch Fresh Prince of Bel Air reruns until they fell asleep because it was fucking funny and it would help take his mind off things. That night after watching Uncle Phil throw Jazz out the front door for the umpteenth time, Bertholdt finally smiled. They must have passed out shortly after because Reiner couldn't recollect anything beyond that.

He remembered the look on Bertholdt’s face the next morning when he woke up to find Reiner still beside him, horribly sore from falling asleep sitting up. It was a mix of tired surprise, worry, and happiness. Reiner had groggily greeted him with a “Good morning sunshine,” and Bertholdt promptly turned beet red.

“You didn't have to stay here Reiner, you could have just gone to sleep normally, you would be more comfortable.” He was embarrassed, how adorable.

“Because I wanted to.” He stretched, cracking his stiff shoulders. “I wanted to make sure you were ok. I wanted you to know that I wasn't going to leave you by yourself.”

“Why?”

“That’s a silly question Bertl, you must have slept in one of your goofy positions again. We've been friends for how long now? Practically since birth. What kind of person would I be if I left you to your demons alone?”

“Yeah, but…”

This was it. It was now or never, since they were talking about their feelings he might as well come clean.

“I love you Bertl.” He didn't think it was possible for the taller boy to turn any redder, and yet there he was. Reiner suddenly wondered if he had made a grievous error and inadvertently pushed his friend into another panic attack. Those thoughts were interrupted by a dark mass of blanket enveloping him and Bertholdt’s lips on his own, toppling him over. They had spent a good portion of the morning getting to know each others lips.

Reiner smiled at the memory, before turning his attention back to the Sweaty Prince in the kitchen. “Hang on Bertl, I've got an idea.”

Moments later Reiner returned, pushing the chair away from the air conditioner with a confused Bertholdt still in it. He tossed a few large throw pillows from the couch on the floor against the wall beneath the unit and turned the air conditioning dial up a notch. “Sorry Bertl, but you’re going about this alllll wrong.”

“Reiner what are you-”

“Just trust me.” He grabbed two binder clips out of the junk drawer in the kitchen and clipped a blanket over the air conditioner and draped the remainder over the end of the table securing it with one of Bertholdt’s enormous hardbound cookbooks.

“There we go,” he surveyed his work. “Perfect. Now get inside.” He gestured at the makeshift blanket fort as he grabbed a beer from the fridge, twisted the cap off and took a swig.

Bertholdt stood there awkwardly looking from Reiner to the blanket fort. “Are you for real right now?”

“Don’t sass me Bertl, get those hot buns in there.” He grinned as Bertholdt frowned and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Uh…ok I guess…” He lifted the end of the blanket and crawled under, feeling more than a little ridiculous.

“Oh! Wow… this is nice!” The blanket created a pocket of cool air that felt nothing short of wondrous on Bertholdt’s overheated skin.

Reiner took another swig of his beer and left the bottle on the unused side of the table before joining him. “See, told ya you were going about this all wrong.” He plopped down beside Bertholdt unceremoniously.

“You were right.” Bertholdt admitted, eyes closed as he leaned against the wall relishing in the cool breeze from the AC unit.

“Of course I was.” Reiner leaned over, planting a kiss on the other, which Bertholdt began to return before making a face and pushing him away.

“Ugh! Your breath stinks!” Was there anything worse than beer breath? Well…probably, but it’s still pretty gross.

“Nonsense,” Reiner smirked, locking his arms around Bertholdt and purposely keeping their faces uncomfortably close. “My breath is like a summer breeze.”

“Yeah, a hot summer breeze over a garbage dump at high noon oh my god…” He craned his neck away from other.

“Well that’s not very nice, especially since I've got a hold of you.” He grinned, Bertholdt squirmed, and Reiner took this opportunity to push him onto his back, clamp his hands onto Bertholdt’s rib cage and start tickling.

“REINER NO!” Bertholdt laughed, all things considered, he really should have seen this coming.

“REINER YES!” He joked back, earning a heel to his rear end. “Ow! Hey fight fair will ya?”

“You’re the one holding me down!”

“Huh…well you’re not wrong…”

They were so immersed in their roughhousing (tickle fighting? Whatever.), they didn't hear the front door open and shortly a new voice joined theirs, though far less jovial and more irritated.

“Jesus H. Christ what the hell are you two idiots doing?!”

The sight of her two roommates faces sticking out from their makeshift tent or whatever the hell they were doing under the kitchen table greeted Annie from the open archway of the living room. At least they were fully clothed. Well mostly, Reiner was sans-shirt, but when wasn't he really? The big meat-head.

“Oh hey Annie, didn't hear you come in.” Reiner grinned that stupid mischievous grin he was so adept at giving whenever she was pissed off.

Bertholdt just looked incredibly embarrassed. As was common.

“So I can see. I can also see you two shitheads hogging all the cool air while the rest of this place quickly becomes a sauna.”

“Well you’re welcome to join us.” Reiner held up the blanket, while shooting her a shit-eating grin.

“How old are you two again?” She frowned, arms crossed. It was too hot for this bullshit. Was she really going to have to lecture two grown men like a couple of five-year-olds? All she wanted to do was throw on some comfortable clothes, pour a glass of ice water and maybe catch up on her Netflix shows. Was that so much to ask?

“A man is a boy ‘til the day he dies.” Reiner stated matter-of-factually.

“Just get a room and quit hogging all the AC please.” Her head was starting to hurt. Maybe she’d have to amend her list to add a lukewarm bath. That might be nice…

“Fine, fine,” He turned his attention back to Bertholdt. “What do you say Bertl, should we move this little love fest to the _boudoir_?” He uttered the last word in some horrifically botched attempt at a French accent. Annie thought she might throw up.

Green eyes met his, bashful as their irritated roommate was still within earshot. “Ok, just brush your teeth first? Your breath seriously stinks.”

“You drive a hard bargain.” He planted a kiss on his cheek before climbing off and starting to disassemble the blanket fort. Bertholdt took care of folding the blanket and re-positioning the fan to point towards the living room again.

“All yours Annie.” Reiner called over his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around Bertholdt’s waist and led him to their bedroom before parting ways to brush his teeth as promised.

Annie stood at the entrance of the now-empty kitchen and sighed. What a bunch of dorks they were. She made a mental note to wear her big noise canceling headphones if she wanted to watch to her shows in peace. God only knows what kind of escapades those two were going to get into.

Hours later when they both emerged, Bertholdt with love bites all over the back of his neck, and Reiner grinning like the shithead he was, Annie knew that she had made the correct assessment.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Their apartment is what I've come to know as a “Chicago house” growing up. You’ll find neighborhoods full of these older style houses in the city. I don’t know if it’s a common term, but a gangway refers to the little walkway between these houses that leads from the front yard to the backyard. So on one side you have the wall to your neighbor’s house (windows and all) and on the other is yours. It’s a little narrower than a standard sidewalk and I guess it can be a little claustrophobic. Theirs is based on the layout of my grandmother’s on the south side, so I’m sorry I went overboard with the detail of it, but once I started I couldn't stop. I've always liked the way her building was laid out, but I've always liked old houses in general. And yes clawed foot bathtubs are freaking amazing. (I want one) I just wish she lived in a safer neighborhood because I would totally move into her empty downstairs unit. IT HAS A TRAPDOOR IN THE BEDROOM THAT LEADS INTO THE BASEMENT HOW COOL IS THAT?!


End file.
